Corporal Punishment

Yesterday, I was introduced to the concept of Corporal Punishment in Secondary Schools, in Singapore.  Typically performed as 'caning,' it is often done publicly, in front of the entire school population, or privately, in the confinement of the principal's office.

Corporal punishment is to be administered to boys only, for serious offenses, and is to be performed by the principal of the school, or the Head of Discipline ('HD,' usually a teacher) that the principal assigns.

Our staff was briefed yesterday that there would be 2 public and 1 private canings held this morning, at the morning assembly.

_____

Today I was able to meet with my supervising professor from NIE, and my CT about our end-of-the-takeover meeting, scheduled for the last week of my placement here.   At this meeting, I was told, I will be presenting the things that I learned during my time here, differences and similarities I see between the United States and Singapore's Education systems, pros and cons to different policies, pedagogies, procedures, etc. and will be able to (and am encouraged to) offer any opinions, preferences, or suggestions I may have for the people in attendance - which will include my NIE professor, my CT, the Subject Head for Biology, the Science Department Chair, and the Vice Principal and Principal of the school where I'm placed.  I am at this moment more than ever brainstorming what to say at this meeting; what to talk about, what to leave out, how I'll cover everything in an hour - but I am very thankful that I will at least have some impact, even if it's just for that moment, on their view of their education system - both its pros and cons.

After my meeting I taught two lessons today, one for the Sec 1's and one for the Sec 3's, and had a wonderful afternoon.  They're becoming much more comfortable with me, are still so excited when I simply walk in the room, and are starting to participate a lot more voluntarily than I've experienced.  The Sec 1's did 2 activities - one introducing the 'Nature of Science' and the positive attitudes that scientists should have when engaging in scientific inquiry.  They were so cute, and came up with an even bigger list of characteristics than I had prepared.  We then did a card sort activity to introduce them to the steps of the Scientific method, and I was able to give them a few questions for homework that will relate DIRECTLY to my M.Ed. topic, and the first artifact that I analyzed back at SBJHS... I'm so excited to compare!!

With the Sec 3's, I continued the lesson on diffusion and osmosis - kind of dry (pardon the pun), but then I was able to do a demo for them for surface area to volume ratio, (thanks again Mary and Erika!!) and they were a little more engaged.  I'm excited, next week we're doing a lab practical, and then it's off to level camps!!

My day ended on a great note, a successful two lessons, a lot of self-reflection to do, and I got to leave work at 2:30 as opposed to 6pm!  Katie, Rae, Hunter (Rae's boyfriend - I'm so jealous!) and I are going to see Her and get dinner, so I'm really looking forward to that as well! And then tomorrow's Friday, yay!!

I'm running out of cats to post for Cat of the Day, so I'll skip that for now, but hopefully I'll see more soon! (they're everywhere!)